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Work  and  Pay 


A  Sermon  Preached  in  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  on  the  Eve 

*  t 

of  Labor  Day,  Sunday,  September  4,  1892 


By  the 


Rt.  Rev.  Hugh  Miller  Thompson,  D.D. 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
ILLINOIS  LIBRARY 
at  the  request  of  the 

Church  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  the  Interests  of 

Labor 

i 


New  York 

Thomas  Whittaker,  2  and  3  Bible  House 
'  1892 


Press  of  A.  G.  Sherwood  &  Co.,  New  York: 


The  following  is  an  alleged  report  of  this  sermon  which  appeared  the  next 
morning .  September  5,  in  the  Nfav  York  Tribune. 

It  is  printed  here  as  a  too-common  specimen  of  the  degradation  and  irrespon¬ 
sibility  of  a  certain  class  of  newspaper. 

AN  EXTRAORDINARY  BISHOP. 


WILD  TALK  IN  OLD  TRINITY  CHURCH. 


Remarkable  Sermon  from  a  Protestant  Episcopal  Prelate  of 

Mississippi  to  Laboring  Men. 


A  special  Labor  Day  service  was  held  at  Trinity  Church  last  evening, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Church  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  the 
Interests  of  Labor.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Hugh  Miller  Thompson,  Protestant 
Episcopal  Bishop  of  Mississippi,  delivered  the  sermon  to  an  audience  which 
completely  filled  the  church.  As  early  as  half-past  seven  o’clock  all  the 
seats  had  been  taken,  and  from  then  until  after  eight  the  people  came  in 
throngs.  The  audience  was  composed  of  almost  every  class  in  the  com¬ 
munity  ;  but  the  laboring  man  predominated.  A  special  service,  lasting 
fully  an  hour,  was  given  before  the  sermon,  and  several  hymns,  which  had 
'  been  written  especially  for  the  occasion,  were  sung  by  the  choir  and  con¬ 
gregation  in  unison.  Thousands  of  intelligent  laboring  men,  closely  packed 
into  the  pews  and,  crowding  the  aisles,  waited  patiently  for  the  Bishop  to 
begin  his  sermon,  for  it  had  been  rumored  that  he  would  take  a  pronounced 
o  and  decided  stand  in  favor  of  labor  against  capital.  The  front  row  of  pews 
was  reserved  for  the  members  of  the  Association  under  whose  auspices  the 
service  was  held,  but  it  was  impossible  to  keep  the  crowd  out  of  them,  and 
many  of  the  members  had  to  stand  with  the  rest  of  the  people. 

During  the  course  of  the  sermon  the  Bishop  was  frequently  interrupted 
f:  by  exclamations  of  approval,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  if  the  sermon  had 
been  delivered  in  any  place  but  a  church,  there  would  have  been  exhibited 
A  a  most  vigorous  and  hearty  approval  of  the  stand  he  took.  As  it  was  there 
was  a  demonstration  seldom  seen  in  a  church,  and  as  the  congregation 
slowly  moved  out  men  gathered  in  groups  to  discuss  the  statements  which 
the  Bishop  had  made. 

JHe  selected  as  the  subject  of  his  sermons  “  Labor’s  Conflict  Against 
Capital,”  and  he  took  a  most  pronounced  position  in  favor  of  labor.  He 
railed  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  saying  “It  affords  no 
protection  to  life  and  property,”  and  he  advocated  restricting  the  power  of 
-f  government  and  confining  its  functions  to  simple  police  duty.  He  warned 
the  laboring  classes  not  to  appeal  to  government  for  aid  in  their  troubles, 
^  for  they  would  get  none;  and  he  asserted  in  the  strongest  terms  that  “  all 
<«  government,  as  it  at  present  exists,  is  an  enemy  to  the  advancement  of 
mankind  in  general  and  prevents  an  equal  distribution  of  wealth  among 


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men.”  He  declared  that  honest,  ambitious  men  were  not  trying  to  get 
rich,  but  merely  were  working  to  get  enough  money  to  maintain  themselves 
and  families.  The  present  government,  he  said,  “  limits  itself  to  the  taxing 
of  the  people  in  the  interest  of  the  capitalists  and  does  not  afford  any  ade¬ 
quate  protection  to  life  and  property.” 

He  further  said  “  the  Anarchist  is  even  deserving  of  sympathy.  Although 
his  measures  are  violent  and  barbarous,  he  is  acting  upon  the  principle  of 
the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  fighting  in  his  way  for  his  natural  rights.” 
The  Bishop  believed  that  men  should  organize  in  order  to  make  a  successful 
fight  against  poverty  and  government  as  it  now  exists.  He  made  the 
statement  that  “  the  Republican  party  has  never  done  anything  for 
the  advancement  of  the  interests  of  the  laboring  classes,”  and  Presi¬ 
dent  Lincoln  he  said,  “  when  he  released  the  slaves,  acted  as  a  despot,  with 
the  power  of  an  army  behind  him.’’  The  speaker  was  especially  bitter 
against  the  American  millionaire  who  goes  abroad  “  and  spends  his  money 
there.”  The  present  brotherhoods  and  trades  unions  he  was  not  in  sym¬ 
pathy  with,  as  he  wanted  the  laboring  man  to  organize  and  be  incorporated 
by  the  State,  so  that  he  could  successfully  fight  against  the  corporations  of 
capitalists.  He  said  that  the  American  laborer  was  in  a  unique  and  fortun¬ 
ate  position,  as  he  was  in  every  respect  the  equal  of  his  employer.  Men 
worked  here  because  they  took  a  pride  in  their  work  and  not  for  personal 
advancement,  and  he  believes  that  the  reason  why  all  were  not  successful, 
was  because  they  did  not  possess  the  power  of  “  gathering  in.”  This 
faculty  gave  certain  people  a  power  over  others  in  the  community,  so  that 
they  received  the  result  of  others’  skill  and  labor,  which  was  not  just. 

During  the  course  of  his  remarks  the  audience  at  times  manifested  con¬ 
siderable  uneasiness,  as  he  attacked  indiscriminately  the  existing  order  of 
things.  When  it  was  capital  he  hit,  they  seemed  satisfied,  but  when  he 
took  such  pronounced  views  against  the  Government  and  the  labor  unions, 
the  congregation  showed  strong  signs  of  dissatisfaction. 

Bishop  Thompson  criticised  at  length  the  action  of  the  State  of  Tennessee 
in  employing  convict  laborers  to  take  the  place  of  honest  men  in  the  mines, 
and  then  shooting  down  these  citizens  because  they  drove  the  convicts 
from  their  work.  The  switchmen’s  strike  at  Buffalo,  he  said,  should  be 
taken  as  a  warning  by  the  people  of  this  country,  as  showing  how  a  few 
thousand  men  can  completely  paralyze  the  industries  of  the  country.  He 
was  especially  indignant  at  the  action  of  the  coal  magnates  in  “  throwing 
thousands  of  miners  out  of  work  and  allowing  them  to  starve,  because  if 
they  continued  to  work  the  price  of  coal  might  be  lowered  a  few  cents,  for 
these  men  have  a  right  to  live  and  earn  enough  to  support  their  families.” 

In  speaking  of  the  conflict  between  capital  and  labor,  and  its  consequent 
evils,  Bishop  Thompson  said  as  follows  : 

“This  country  is  the  most  enlightened  and  most  advanced,  and  has  the 
greatest  natural  resources  of  any  in  the  world,  and  we  shall  soon  develop 
this  wealth  until  we  become  the  richest  country  in  the  world.  Yet  some¬ 
thing  is  radically  wrong,  for  in  this  land  the  people  are  uneasy,  and  they 
are  uneasy  because  they  are  an  intelligent  and  enlightened  people.  In  the 
conflicts  between  labor  and  capital  each  side  appeals  in  time  to  the  Govern¬ 
ment.  Let  labor  simply  understand  that  the  Government  is  the  last  place 
to  appeal  to.  It  is  not  a  fraternal  power  to  provide  aid  for  all  that  need  it, 
as  it  should  be.  It  is  our  duty  to  take  care  of  government  and  see  that  gov¬ 
ernment  takes  care  of  us.  The  whole  history  of  man  has  been  a  struggle 
against  government  and  to  induce  government  to  let  us  alone.  The  best 


5 


government  is  the  one  that  governs  least,  and  government  should  only  be 
an  arrangement  for  the  maintenance  of  order  and  peace.  To  whom,  then, 
must  labor  look  for  aid  simply  for  itself.  There  is  no  difference  between 
the  employer  and  the  employe  in  this  country  so  far  as  I  can  find.  Now  do 
you  not  see  that  here  is  the  unique  opportunity  for  American  laborers  ?  The 
single  man  working  by  himself  has  never  yet  been  able  to  do  anything.  He 
must  band  himself  in  order  to  cope  with  others.  I  do  not  believe  in  the 
present  trades  unions  and  brotherhoods,  and  I  think  that  the  unions  should 
be  incorporated  by  the  State,  and  so  fight  capital,  as  they  fight  labor 
through  their  corporations. 

“  If  you  are  to  cheat  men  you  must  combine.  Capital  asks  the  State  to 
help  it  to  rot  the  laborer.  Organized  human  society  is  against  all  such  pi¬ 
rates  and  sharks.  The  aim  of  brotherhood  should  be  to  get  a  more  equal 
distribution  of  wealth  and  to  give  men  a  chance  to  gain  a  living.  Our  rich 
men  are  constantly  leaving  the  country  and  spending  the  result  of  American 
toil  and  skill  abroad  for  nothing  or  worse  than  nothing.  Ireland  has  com¬ 
plained  of  absenteeism.  There  is  no  greater  country  in  the  world  for  ab¬ 
sentees  than  this,  and  probably  the  rich  men  of  this  city  have  spent  over 
$r 50, 000,000  in  Europe  this  year,  and  yet  we  hear  that  there  is  not  money 
enough  in  the  United  States  for  all. 

“  We  cannot  prosper  upon  another’s  loss  and  trouble,  and  some  day  the 
trades  unions  will  undoubtedly  consult  with  the  capitalist  for  the  advancing 
of  their  mutual  interests.” 


SERMON. 


‘  ‘Ail  the  whole  Heavens  are  the  Lord's .  The  earth  hath  He  given  to 
the  children  of  men."  (Prayer  Book  Version .) — Psalm  1 1 5  :  16. 


In  the  beginning  when  God  made  man,  male  and  female, 
“in  our  image  after  our  likeness,”  He  blessed  them  and 
said  (it  is  the  first  commandment — remember,  older  than 
Sinai,  older  [than  Moses  :  grayest  of  all  laws,  human  or 
divine),  “  Be  fruitful  and  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth 
and  sitbdue  it  and  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea 
and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air  and  over  the  cattle,  and  over 
all  the  earth  and  over  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth 
upon  the  earth.” 

It  is  a  command  to  be  obeyed.  It  is  a  charter  conferring 
right.  It  is  a  King’s  gift  to  His  son.  It  confers  all  royal¬ 
ties,  conveys  all  right.  It  is  because  such  royalty  and 


6 


right  are  conveyed  and  have  been  exercised  that  we 
are  here  to-night  in  this  church  in  one  of  the  world’s  great 
cities  where  two  hundred  years  ago  the  wolf  howled,  the 
eagle  screamed  and  the  painted  savage  crept  in  the  dark¬ 
ness  to  the  slaughter  of  his  foe. 

“The  earth  hath  He  given  to  the  children  of  men.” 
You  see  it  is  declared  again,  after  centuries  of  toil  and 
sorrow  and  pain,  the  old  fact,  the  basis  of  the  old  com¬ 
mand.  The  Hebrew  Scriptures  never  once  falter  on  the 
primal  marching  order  for  the  race  of  man. 

They  vindicate  everywhere  the  Sovereignty  for  God— 
for  one  great,  just  and  righteous  God  alone.  But  they 
always  gladly,  cheerily,  thankfully  proclaim  that  this 
“ Adonai  Ec had”  this  “Lord  Alone ’’ has  given  the  world 
to  His  children,  “  the  children  of  men,”  and  that  all  of  rich 
and  beautiful  and  wonderful  upon  it  is  their  heritage. 

And  whether  one  accepts  the  authority  of  these  Hebrew 
writings  or  not,  he  must  accept  the  fact  that  they  fully 
explain,  and  grandly  account  for  the  unique  position  that 
man  holds  and  has  held,  in  all  historic  days  upon  this 
world. 

For  man  alone  of  all  creatures  on  Earth  has  felt  that  he 
owned  the  Earth,  and  had  the  right  to  do  with  it  just  what 
he  would.  He  has  never  hesitated  to  tear  and  trample  and 
burst  open  anywhere  the  dumb  planet  from  which  some 
wise  men  say  he  came,  soul  and  body.  He  has,  from  the 
beginning,  claimed  absolute  and  irresponsible  sovereignty 
over  it  and  all  it  holds. 

Even  the  man  of  the  stone  hammer  and  the  flint  arrow¬ 
head  stood  upon  his  sovereignty,  and  the  man  of  New 
York  to-day  would  not  be  startled  at  the  proposal  to  wall 
in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  for  miles  outside  of  Sandy  Hook  for 
a  new  harbor  (which  by  the  way,  they  are  building  ships 
at  present  he  may  be  compelled  to  do  if  you  discharge 
your  sewage  into  the  Bay  much  longer),  or  blow  up  a 
whole  passage  way  round  the  Island  from  the  Sound  to 


7 


the  Hudson,  eight  fathoms  deep,  which  I  think  your  chil¬ 
dren  will  have  to  do. 

Now  mind  it  makes  no  difference  in  this  case  what  a 
man’s  notions  about  revelation  or  inspiration  may  be.  The 
visible  fact  is,  that  men  since  the  dawn  of  time,  the  “Ice 
Age,”  if  you  choose,  if  there  ever  was  such  an  “Age,”  have 
been  always  working,  digging,  plowing,  planting,  sweat¬ 
ing  ;  in  ice  or  out  of  it,  to  replenish  and  subdue  the  Earth 
and  get  homes,  and  hearths  and  bread  and  meat  and 
clothes  for  wife  and  babies. 

For  after  all,  dear  friends,  that  has  been  the  whole  story 
of  history  since  there  ever  was  history.  Of  course  the 
books  are  full  of  wars  and  battles,  and  politics  and 
“heroes,”  so-called.  Filled  with  wonderful  things  about 
emperors,  kings,  queens,  statesmen  and  generals,  are  the 
books  we  call  “  Histories.”  But  the  real  story  of  the 
world,  we  are  beginning  to  see  in  these  latter  days,  is  the 
story  of  how  common  people  lived  and  made  their  homes, 
and  got  food  and  some  small  comfort  for  the  mother  and 
the  children.  That  has  been,  and  we  are  all  fast  seeing 
it,  the  real  story  of  mankind.  How  the  average  man,  no 
hero,  no  king,  no  general,  but  just  the  common  son  of  man  as 
he  runs,  has  contrived  to  obey  the  old  primal  command 
to  master  the  world  and  get  his  living  out  of  it. 

It  was  a  wise  word  of  one  of  our  wisest  poets  who  made 
his  immortal  songs  behind  his  plow  : 

“  To  make  a  happy  fireside  clime 
For  bairns  and  wife, 

Is  the  true  pathos  and  sublime 
Of  human  life.” 

I  need  not  tell  you  how  hard  has  been  the  battle  for 
mere  bread  and  shelter  in  the  long  story.  I  need  not  tell 
you  how  the  children  of  men  have  grown  in  the  struggle 
wiser,  stronger,  more  steadfast,  under  the  toil.  How  the 
primal  curse,  “  in  the  sweat  of  thy  brow  shalt  thou  eat 
bread,”  has  become  a  blessing. 


8 


The  blunders  have  been  frightful — wars  which  wasted 
the  gifts  of  God,  wretched  tyrannies  of  small  and  great 
tyrants  which  trampled  on  men’s  souls  and  bodies.  Yet 
in  spite  of  all  the  insanity  and  wickedness  of  men,  they 
have,  I  believe,  been  steadily  climbing  to  the  sense  and 
exercise  of  the  splendid  sovereignty  with  which  the  Father 
in  Heaven  endowed  them  in  the  beginning,  when  He  gave 
this  fair  World  to  the  Children  of  Men. 

The  foremost  peoples  who  have  done  the  World’s  work 
in  largest  measure  are  finding  at  last  how  exhaustless  is 
the  heritage,  riches  in  the  desolation  of  the  mountains, 
harvests  in  the  barren  sands,  power  obedient  to  human  use 
in  the  stones,  light,  for  the  street,  and  the  fireside,  and  a 
messenger  of  swift  obedience  in  the  burning  leven. 

And  yet  we  are  facing  strange  portents  among  these  fore¬ 
most  peoples.  They  have  learned  much  and  carried  their 
conquests  far.  They  have  not,  it  seems,  learned  how 
fairly  and  satisfactorily  to  divide  what  they  have  won,  nor 
amid  overwhelming  abundance,  to  find  food  and  shelter 
for  the  sons  of  men. 

It  is  a  terrible  exhibition  of  the  stupid  savagery  that 
still  exists  in  our  highest  civilization  that  a  whole  indus¬ 
trial  community  goes  idle,  and  a  needed  product  of  skill 
and  science,  under  contract  to  be  supplied,  cannot  be  sup¬ 
plied  and  so  a  thousand  other  men  are  idle  also. 

The  situation  at  Homestead  has  been  for  months  a  grim 
satire  upon  our  civilization,  and  our  political  and  indus¬ 
trial  economics. 

Perhaps  the  later  situation  at  Buffalo  is  even  more  start¬ 
ling.  For  we  are  confronted  with  the  fact  that  the  inter¬ 
course  of  the  whole  country,  indeed  its  intercourse  with 
the  whole  world,  may  be  suddenly  closed  by  a  quarrel  be¬ 
tween  employees  and  employed. 

Men  have  half  starved  in  Pennsylvania  coal-towns,  wrhile 
the  riches  of  the  mountains  lay  open  at  their  feet,  and  poor 
women  and  children  have  meanwhile  shivered  in  New  York 


i 


9 


tenements  because  these  miners  were  not  allowed  to  work 
lest  the  abundance  produced  should  lower  the  price  of  coal 
fifteen  cents  per  ton  ! 

It  is  in  England,  in  Belgium,  in  Germany,  in  the  United 
States,  in  the  very  centres  of  human  toil  and  amid  the 
abundance  of  its  rewards  that  outbreaks,  strikes,  inarticu¬ 
late  fury  and  dumb  despair  against  felt  stupidities  and 
wrongs,  are  becoming,  more  and  more,  constant  conditions. 

There  are  no  strikes  among  savages.  There  are  no 
strikes  in  poor  countries.  It  is  in  the  countries  most  in¬ 
dustrious,  most  enlightened,  most  effectually  carrying  out 
the  old  command,  most  thoroughly  subduing  the  earth, 
that  the  greatest  contrasts  exist  between  luxury  and  want, 
enormous  wealth  and  abject  poverty,  between  the  capital 
used  in  subduing  the  world  and  the  labor  which  subdues 
it. 

Our  own  country  is  possibly  the  richest  in  resources  in 
the  World.  These  resources  are  most  rapidly  turned  to 
use.  We  are  subduing  on  all  hands.  In  actual  developed 
wealth  we  shall  shortly  be  the  richest  people  so  far  known. 

And  yet  there  is  something  darkly  wrong  in  the  results. 

For  this  richest  people  in  this  richest  land — our  share 
of  God’s  gift — are,  this  night,  the  most  uneasy  people  ex¬ 
isting. 

They  are  the  most  uneasy  because  the  most  intelligent  ! 
Nowhere  is  there  the  like  amount  of  sense  and  knowledge, 
of  s,kill  and  wisdom,  of  patient,  loyal  endurance  and  inde¬ 
pendence  as  among  the  workingmen  of  the  United  States  ! 

On  the  deck  of  an  Atlantic  steamer  I  heard  a  great  Eng¬ 
lish  “  Iron  Master  ”  give  voice  to  this  opinion  :  “  Yes,  they 
will  beat  us.  They  hire  brains  in  America  not  mere 
‘  hands.’  They  will,  in  the  end,  beat  us  in  our  own  special¬ 
ties.”  It  was  in  1876.  He  had  been  at  the  Centennial. 

I  suppose  there  is  not  a  railroad  in  the  United  States 
that  could  not  to-morrow  be  handled,  ordered,  managed, 
by  men  selected  from  its  ships,  its  engines  and  its  cuttings. 


10 


I  venture  to  say  the  whole  industry  at  Homestead  can  be 
managed  by  men  now  upon  the  strike.  There  is  not  a  de¬ 
partment,  nor  a  detail  in  the  department  that  men,  on  day 
wages,  are  not  competent  to  control. 

I  say  this  the  more  readily,  because  in  three  cases  which 
I  know  three  most  successful  railroad  presidents  were  at 
first  track  layers  or  firemen  on  their  roads.  And  by  the 
way,  on  the  roads  of  these  gentlemen  there  never  has  been 
a  strike. 

It  is  the  serious  part  of  it.  It  is  the  hopeful  part  of  it, 
too,  that  in  these  chaotic  and  irrational  contests  there  is 
so  much  of  trained  intelligence,  of  skill,  patience,  leader¬ 
ship,  and  gentle  manners  among  the  people  that  depend 
only  upon  their  brains  and  hands.  There  was  never  any¬ 
thing  like  it.  A  starving  peasantry  has  before  this  revolted 
against  its  feudal  tyrants.  An  ignorant,  debased  popula¬ 
tion  has  risen  more  than  once  in  beast  fury,  against  its 
brutal  masters.  But  here,  in  the  United  States,  the  struggle 
is  between  men  of  about  equal  intelligence,  equal  skill  and 
equal  good  breeding.  I  can  conscientiously  declare  that 
I  think  one  could  pick  from  a  locomotive  engine  to-morrow, 
a  man  quite  as  intelligent,  quite  as  well  educated,  quite  as 
competent,  just  as  well  mannered  and  well-bred  and  much 
more  to  be  trusted  to  stand  at  his  post  till  he  dies,  as,  let 
me  say,  half  a  dozen  so  called  “railroad  magnates”  that  I 
have  known. 

For,  dear  friends,  this  thing  is  too  often  forgotten.  There 
are  men  of  highest  manhood,  of  greatest  genius,  of  kingliest 
nature,  who  cannot  gather  things.  As  Agassiz  said:  “I  have 
no  time  to  make  money.”  There  are  men  who  love  the 
work  for  the  work’s  sake.  They  have  the  consciousness  of 
mastership.  They  can  do  a  thing  well,  write  a  poem, 
preach  a  sermon,  lead  an  army,  run  an  engine,  command  a 
ship,  hammer  a  bar  of  iron,  carve  a  statue,  paint  a  picture, 
or  shoe  a  horse.  But  they  have  not  the  magpie  instinct 
for  gathering  things. 


11 


They  love  what  they  can  do.  They  are  proud  and  happy 
to  do  it  well.  They  have  no  reward  so  great  as  the  satis¬ 
faction  of  doing  it  well.  They  beat  out  the  bar,  lead  the 
army,  preach  the  sermon,  shoe  the  horse.  They  are  mas¬ 
ters  there.  They  realize  to  themselves  the  sovereignty. 
They  are  children  of  men.  Sons  of  God — “subduing” — 
mastering  under  the  old  Royal  Charter. 

I  stood  one  night  by  the  sick  bed  of  an  old  negro  in  dire 
agony.  One  of  the  foremost  physicians  in  a  great  south¬ 
ern  city  was  bringing  all  his  skill  and  care  to  bear  upon 
the  case.  There  were  hours  of  toil  and  breathless  anxiety. 
At  four  in  the  morning,  a  hot  August  night  passed,  he 
said  to  me,  “  All  right,  Doctor,  I  have  won  ;  she’ll  live. 
Let’s  go  home.” 

Mind,  not  a  penny  for  it  !  A  negro  cabin  the  scene,  and 
the  pet  doctor  of  “society  ladies  ”  with  half  boyish  glee  ran 
home  in  the  dewy  morning  rubbing  his  hands  because  he 
had  “won.”  He  had  saved  a  poor  old  negro’s  life!  He 
was  Master  of  his  case  ! 

I  stood  another  night  beside  a  rough,  common  railroad 
engineer,  lying  smashed  on  the  track,  beside  his  wrecked 
engine.  He  was  dying,  though  none  of  us  knew  it  then, 
for  the  doctors  had  not  come  from  the  city  yet.  I  said 

“Do  you  know  me,  M - ?”  “Oh,  Bishop,  is  it  you?” 

“Yes,  M - .”  “How  was  it?”  “An  open  switch, 

M - .”  “  Oh,  yes,  an  open  switch,  Bishop,  I  stood  by  ?  ” 

“Yes,  M - .”  You  stood  by!  Poor  M - .  A 

gentleman  gone  to  his  account  within  the  hour.  But  God 

in  Heaven  loves  gentlemen.  And  M - had  driven  his 

“lightning  express  ”  engine  like  a  gentleman. 

You  see  what  I  mean. 

The  question  between  Labor  and  Capital  is,  in  our 
country,  a  very  peculiar  and  a  very  new  question. 

The  most  of  us  belong  to  Jesus  Christ’s  “great  Congre¬ 
gation  of  the  Poor.”  We  have  no  “  Capital”  in  the  ordi¬ 
nary  sense  of  the  word,  and  moreover  we  don’t  want  any. 


12 


We  have  no  time  to  get  rich.  We  are  hammering  away 
continually  and  enjoying  our  work,  discovering  our  dis¬ 
coveries,  writing  our  books,  shoeing  our  horses,  preaching 
our  sermons,  raising  our  fields  of  corn,  cotton  or  wheat, 
writing  our  songs  or  training  our  prize  colts,  making  our 
speeches  in  Congress,  or  smelting  our  iron  ore. 

You  must  accept  that.  The  whole  political  economy 
foolery  must  accept  it.  The  average  man  does  not  care  to 
be  rich.  The  whole  story  of  our  country  is  evidence  of 
that.  The  wisest  and  best  men  in  the  United  States  never 
were  rich.  They  are  not  so  now.  The  men  who  have 
made  the  country,  have  subdued,  conquered,  utilized,  for 
our  uses,  this  much  of  God’s  gift  to  the  Children  of  Men, 
never  “made  money  ”  and  never  cared  to  make  it. 

They  had  no  time.  The  men  whom  we  honor  in  the 
story  of  the  United  States  had  no  time  for  money  making. 

George  Washington  died  poor.  Thomas  Jefferson  was  a 
broken  man.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  a  millionaire. 
Did  Benjamin  Franklin  make  a  fortune?  Did  Jackson  or 
Polk  or  Arthur  ?  Have  the  Harrisons,  either  grandfather 
or  grandson,  gathered  thousands  in  our  highest  place  ?  Or 
Grover  Cleveland,  has  his  aim  in  this  world  been  to  become 
a  millionaire  ?  Poor  Grant  tried  it  and  his  great  heart 
broke! 

Did  Webster,  Clay  or  Calhoun  toil  to  make  fortunes  ? 
Or  our  poets,  Longfellow,  Whittier,  Bryant,  Lowell,  or 
our  scientific  men  from  Franklin  to  Morse,  or  our 
historians,  Bancroft  or  Motley,  or  our  great  lawyers  and 
jurists,  from  Jay  and  Marshall  to  Field  and  Fuller,,  have 
they  been  after  money  ? 

Why,  friends,  the  great  workers,  subduers  and  conquerors 
in  the  whole  world’s  history  have  never  had  time  to  bother 
their  heads  about  money-making!  The  victories  over  chaos 
and  waste  and  the  wild  war  of  nature  have  been  always 
won  by  poor  men. 

And  it  is  something  to  consider  and  be  thankful  for,  that 


% 


13 


the  average  American  who  is  doing  respectable  service  in 
this  world,  sometimes  even  heroic  service,  doesn’t  care  for 
money. 

Does  that  sound  strange  to  you  ?  “  What  !”  you  say,  look¬ 
ing  over  this  great,  busy,  greedy,  eager  city,  “  do  you  tell  me 
the  object  of  men  in  New  York  is  not  to  get  dollars,  piles 
of  dollars,  and  more  dollars  still?” 

I  deliberately  mean  to  say  that  the  object  of  ninety-nine 
industrious  men  in  one  hundred  in  New  York  is  just  to  get 
an  honest  living  and  succeed  in  their  chosen  calling!  And 
the  object  of  many  a  rich  man  in  New  York,  rich  in  money 
honestly  earned  by  himself  or  his  father,  is  to  find  out 
where  he  can  put  some  thousands  now  and  then,  for  other 
men’s  good. 

For,  you  see,  we  start  with  this  advantage  in  the  United 
States.  Our  grandfathers  (if  all  the  people  in  New  York 
had  grandfathers)  were  equally  poor  together.  The  grand¬ 
father  of  one  rich  house  came  to  the  city,  it  is  said,  with  a 
bundle  of  German  flutes  under  his  arm. 

But  others  came.  One  boy,  I  like  to  remember 
him,  a  modest,  bashful,  clumsy  New  England  boy,  and  he 
made  your  New  York  Tribune  and  gave  his  money  to  any¬ 
body  who  asked  it. 

And  another,  a  Scotch  boy,  equally  clumsy,  bashful  and 
poor,  but  somewhat  more  “canny”  came  and  he  left  you 
your  New  York  Herald.  It  is  for  you  to  say  what  has  been 
done  with  them  since  ! 

Both  left  their  memorials.  With  all  their  contrasts  each 
had  his  ideal,  and  Horace  Greeley  and  James  Gordon 
Bennett  were  neither  of  them  working  for  mere  money. 

Each  worked  to  earn  honest  bread  for  the  little  flock  at 
home  and  to  do  what  best  he  could  for  the  ordering  and- 
subduing  of  the  earth  in  his  way,  taking  honest  pride  in 
his  work,  trying  to  make  it  successful.  And  each  has  left 
his  memorial  in  this  great  city  enduring  and  strong. 
Shall  I  recall  the  sacred  memory  of  William  Cullen  Bryant  ? 


14 


What  need  ?  But  I  will  not  pass,  in  this  connection,  that 
gentle  scholar  who  left  us  only  four  days  ago,  and  whose 
stern  self-sacrifice  to  a  point  of  high  honor  kept  him  poor 
all  the  days  of  his  life,  whose  name  and  fame  are  a  possession 
forever  for  plain  living  and  high  thinking  to  us  and  our 
children. 

Dear  friends,  while  this  great,  rich,  luxurious  city  breeds 
men  of  the  mould  of  George  William  Curtis,  who  love 
honor  and  clean  conscience  and  fair  thoughts  above  long 
bank  accounts,  while  New  York  honors  them  living  and 
mourns  them  dead,  no  man  shall  despair  of  her,  and  no 
man  shall  say  she  is  wholly  given  over  to  the  worship  of 
mammon,  the  service  of  the  flesh,  or  the  false  gods  of 
material  success  ! 

It  has  been  the  making  of  her,  it  is  the  crown  of  her 
greatness  to-day,  this,  and  not  the  vastness  of  her  wealth, 
nor  the  extent  of  her  Empire,  that  the  queen  of  the  Western 
World  has  chosen  for  her  honored  names,  and  set  in  her 
heart  and  the  hearts  of  her  children  to  be  honored  forever, 
the  roll  of  her  sons  who  did  high  service,  by  tongue  or  pen 
or  noble  deed,  for  other  men,  caring  not  whether,  as  the 
world  counts,  they  were  rich  or  poor  ! 

For  it  is  in  doing  his  honest  work  as  it  comes  to  him,  in 
caring  for  his  house  and  children,  and  doing  his  homely 
duty  under  the  old  law  that  enduring  success  has  come  to 
any  man. 

There  are  thousands  of  clergymen  in  the  United  States 
who  have  held  their  services  and  preached  their  Sermons 
to-day.  Would  they  change  their  places  for  the  richest  in 
the  land  ?  I  know  of  only  two  open  to  the  suspicion. 

You  say  “What  does  all  this  mean  ?  What  has  all  this 
to  do  with  capital  and  labor  ?” 

I  answer,  dear  friends,  it  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  both. 
Labor,  as  such,  has  no  rights.  Capital,  as  such,  has  no 
rights.  The  workingman,  as  such,  has  no  rights,  but  also 
the  millionaire,  as  such,  has  no  rights. 


15 


There  is  just  one  right  in  this  world  which  is  universal, 
the  right  for  room  to  make  a  living,  the  right  to  a  man’s 
own  life  and  what  he  can  make  of  it.  That  right  is  in¬ 
volved  in  the  first  royal  grant. 

Now,  mind  you,  making  a  living  may  mean  living  in  a 
log-cabin  at  one  time  or  in  a  marble  front  on  Central  Park 
at  another.  It  depends  entirely  upon  the  man,  the  time 
and  the  conditions. 

There  are  men  in  thousands,  like  myself  (if  you  will  par¬ 
don  me),  who  do  not  care  a  sixpence  which.  I  have  a 
board  shanty  in  the  Blue  Mountains  in  North  Carolina 
worth  two  hundred  dollars,  I  would  rather  sleep  there  to¬ 
night  than  in  the  most  “  palatial  residence  ”  in  New  York, 
because  I  love  tumbling  brooks,  roaring  cataracts  and  the 
sound  of  the  wind  in  the  forest. 

I  mean  that  if  I,  loving  these  things,  wish  to  live  in  the 
forest  and  by  the  cataract’s  in  a  shanty,  I  ought  to  be 
allowed  to  do  it. 

If  you  prefer  a  brown  stone  or  marble  front  on  Fifth 
Avenue  with  the  clatter  of  the  milkman’s  cart  in  the  morn¬ 
ing,  and  the  rumbling  of  the  stages  all  day,  you  ought  to 
be  allowed  that.  If  I  can  get  what  I  want,  and  if  you  can 
get  what  you  want  ! 

Now  I  can’t  get  what  I  want  because  I  am  under  obliga¬ 
tion  very  solemn,  to  live  in  Mississippi,  instead  of  living  in 
North  Carolina  in  the  mountains. 

And  most  of  you  are  probably  under  obligations  to  live 
at  present  in  another  house  and  not  in  a  marble  front  high 
up  on  the  Avenue. 

But  if  you  can  ever  get  that  marble  front  on  the  Avenue, 
it  will  be  yours.  And  if  I  can  ever  get  excused  to  lead  my 
ideal  life  in  the  board  shanty  in  the  mountains  it  will  be 
mine.  Only  neither  of  us  must  do  any  wrong  in  reaching 
our  ideal,  nor  upset  each  other  on  the  way,  nor  break  any 
manly  obligations  in  getting  there. 

I  spoke  before  of  what  is  called  the  contest  between 


16 


Labor  and  Capital.  It  is  a  contest  very  visible.  Never¬ 
theless  it  is  an  irrational  contest  on  both  sides. 

Each  side  appeals  to  what  is  called  “  Government.”  I  am 
sorry  to  see  the  use  of  that  word  in  the  Chinese  way, 
growing  in  the  United  States.  In  that  sense  I  do  not 
believe  in  “  Governments.”  “  The  best  government  is  that 
which  governs  least.”  As  “one  of  your  own  poets  ”  in  quite 
another  connexion  “has  said”  “I  am  a  Democrat.” 
Government  is  only  the  arrangement  of  a  community  for 
its  own  order  and  peace,  that  each  member  of  the  com¬ 
munity  may  be  protected  in  his  life,  property  and  good 
name.  That  absolutely  is  all  that  any  sensible  govern¬ 
ment  may  exist  for — purely  police  duty  internally  among 
its  own  citizens.  And  outwardly  as  a  protection  against 
possible  enemies.  The  first  part  of  this  duty  has  never 
been  and  is  not  now  perfectly  performed  in  any  part  of 
the  United  States.  No  community  indeed  in  any  part  or 
age  of  the  World  has  ever  entirely  performed  the  ordinary 
police  duty  of  making  life,  property,  and  honor  safe. 

Governments  have  taxed,  tariffied  and  dutified  to  raise 
money  to  fight  other  people.  They  have  never  succeeded 
in  making  life  quite  safe  at  home.  More  lives  have  been 
sacrificed  in  the  United  States  by  murder,  homicide  or 
preventable  accident  five-fold  than  in  all  our  foreign  wars. 

More  property  has  been  destroyed  by  arson,  riot  or 
robbery  ten-fold  than  by  foreign  enemies. 

And  yet  we  are  taxed,  and  our  patriotism  appealed  to 
to  build  ships,  and  forts,  and  make  “defences”  against 
an  imaginary  foreign  enemy,  when  for  eighty  years  we 
could  find  no  enemy  in  the  world,  and  so  turned  to  cutting 
each  others’  throats  as  an  expression  of  Northern  or 
Southern  patriotism  ! 

One  might  think  the  Anarchists  half  right  !  The 
governments  of  the  earth  are  without  sense,  principle  or 
reason,  as  soon  as  you  take  them  far  away  from  the  fire¬ 
sides  and  the  home  communities.  They  have  based  them- 


1? 


selves  on  the  notion — the  old  diabolic  notion,  that  men 
were  by  nature  the  enemies  of  men,  and  therefore  that  each 
people  must  stand  armed  and  bristling  against  each  other 
people. 

So  Europe  is  to-day  an  armed  camp  and  every  German, 
French  and  Russian  peasant  hoes  his  poor  patch  of  ground 
with  a  soldier  on  his  back. 

For  the  solution  of  the  difference  between  labor  and  cap¬ 
ital,  for  the  solution  of  any  other  differences  or  difficulties 
the  last  place  to  look  for  help  is  to  the  thing  you  call 
“  Government.” 

Government,  at  its  very  best,  is  only  the  exression  of 
the  average  good  sense  and  honesty  of  the  people.  But  no 
Government  ever  succeeded  in  being  at  one-tenth  of  its 
best.  Certainly  the  government  of  the  United  States  or 
of  any  particular  State  has  never  in  your  memory  or 
mine,  expressed  the  best  intelligence  or  honesty  of  those 
it  represented. 

For  you  and  me,  and  most  men  trying  to  make  our 
honest  livings  on  the  earth,  Government,  Federal  or  State, 
stands  for  a  thing  that  gets  money  from  us. 

It  does  not  protect  our  lives  from  violence,  our  houses 
from  burglary,  or  our  own  good  names  from  slander.  In  its 
Federal  form  it  taxes  everything  we  eat,  wear,  or  use,  to 
pay  its  own  running  expenses,  support  two  or  three  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  patriots  and  build  cruisers,  to  be  ready  to 
fight  Chili  or  the  Principality  of  Monaco  some  coming 
century  ! 

The  United  States  has  contrived  to  invent  in  one  century 
of  existence  the  most  expensive  government  by  five-fold  in 
the  world,  ancient  or  modern,  and  to  get  the  least  protec¬ 
tion  out  of  it  for  the  single  citizen. 

One  wise  state  has,  to  save  the  expense  of  supporting  its 
thieves  and  murderers,  hired  them  out  in  rivalry  with 
honest  miners ,  and  because  they  protested,  the  only  way 
they  knew,  against  being  brought  into  competition  with 


18 


the  farmed  out  felony  of  a  “  sovereign  State/’  has  been 
shooting  them  right  are  left.  The  State  was,  of  course, 
forced  to  do  so.  But  it  is  pitiful. 

In  this  same  Sovereign  State  the  Governor  has  prac¬ 
tically  interpreted  the  law,  as  its  newspapers  declare,  to 
mean  that  when  a  “  Gentleman  ”  assassinates  another  he 
must  not  be  hanged  as  the  law  requires — just  sent  to  be  a 
clerk  in  the  Penitentiary  till  the  next  Governor  pardons 
him  out ! 

So  whatever  be  the  contests  between  labor  and  capital 
hereafter,  let  labor,  at  least,  distinctly  understand  there  is 
no  hope  for  it  in  any  governmental  interference. 

There  is  not  on  record,  the  single  case  in  which  any  re¬ 
publican  government  took  the  side  of  labor.  I  trust  there 
never  will  be.  Republican  Governments  are  supposed  to 
exist  on  the  theory  that  labor  can  take  admirable  care  of 
itself.  Alexander  freed  the  serfs  of  Russia;  but  Alexander 
was  an  arbitrary  sovereign.  Abraham  Lincoln  proclaimed 
freedom  to  the  slaves;  but  Abraham  Lincoln  did  so  outside 
the  Constitution,  and  as  a  war  measure.  In  neither  case 
would  a  constitutional  Legislature,  Congress  or  Court  have 
dared  to  do  what  these  men  did  ! 

For  the  just  and  wise  settlement  of  the  conditions  which 
are  confronting  the  foremost  people  now  there  is  no  hope 
in  the  machine  we  call  “  Government.” 

Government  is  not  some  paternal  power  organized  to  take 
care  of  all  imbeciles  and  furnish  pap  to  all  fools  or  knaves, 
and  provide  dinners  and  shirts  and  greenbacks  for  all 
patriots  who  need  them. 

I  am  ashamed  that  there  are  people  in  the  United  States 
who  have  so  far  forgotten  the  traditions  of  their  race  and 
country  as  to  think  the  thing  they  call  “  Government  ”  was 
ever  made  to  take  care  of  anybody.  There  are  some  of  us 
yet  who  believe  that  it  is  our  duty  to  take  care  of  “  Govern¬ 
ment,”  and  to  see  that  “Government”  most  energetically 
encourages  every  man  to  take  care  of  himself  ! 


19 


If  we  are  going  into  the  business  of  a  “  Paternal  ”  Gov¬ 
ernment,  it  most  be  confessed  we  have,  in  the  United 
States,  invented  the  most  expensive  and  extraordinary 
“  Paternal”  Government  ever  dreamed  of  by  man  ! 

It  is  perhaps  natural  enough  that  there  should  be  a  su¬ 
perstition  that  a  thing  called  “  Government  ”  is  the  great 
Providence  over  men’s  lives — that  some  doings  of  “Govern¬ 
ment,”  should  be  looked  to  as  the  solution  of  all  diffi¬ 
culties. 

But  the  whole  history  of  Man,  as  a  social  being,  is  the 
story  of  a  struggle  with  “Governments,”  a  long,  painful, 
wretched  story  of  his  struggle  to  get  from  under  the  load 
of  “  Governments,”  and  compel  “  Governments  ”  to  let  him 
alone! 

The  poor,  mad  Anarchists  who  come  to  us  from  abroad 
have  some  cause,  as  all  insane  folk  have,  for  their  mad¬ 
ness  ! 

But  did  we  not  settle  that  a  hundred  years  ago  when  we 
proclaimed  that  the  thing  called  “  Government  ”  was  only 
an  arrangement  by  the  community  to  preserve  its  own 
quiet  and  order,  and  to  arrange  things  so  that  a  man  should 
be  able  to  mind  his  own  business  ? 

We  thought  we  did,  without  question.  And  now  we  are 
confronted  with  all  the  heresies  which  we  thought  we  had 
buried,  and  are  taxed  and  ridden  in  the  interests  of  all 
forms  of  Government,  from  boodle  Aldermen  to  ring 
Senators,  from  town  constable  to  President,  the  most  be- 
governed  people  going. 

To  whom  then  shall  the  appeal  be  made?  Here  is  a  con¬ 
dition  where  every  old  trouble  is  coming  upon  us,  where 
the  man  who  has  and  the  man  who  has  not  are  pitted 
against  each  other  in  enmity.  Here  are  the  submerged, 
hopeless,  and  desperate  “classes”  (pardon  me  for  using  a 
word  I  detest)  growing  daily  in  numbers.  Here  are  the 
thousands  in  your  City  slums,  their  children  growing  up 
in  the  gutters,  if  they  can  succeed  in  living  in  their  wretched 
quarters  at  all. 

/  » 


I 


20 


And  on  the  other  hand,  here  are  several  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  Americans  this  y.ear  in  Europe  spending,  it  is  safe  to 
say,  one  hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars  of  American 
money  abroad  ! 

Our  hearts  have  all  been  wrung,  by  the  pitiful  appeals  of 
Irish  “patriots,”  against  “Absentees.  ”  As  the  O’Sullivan 
is  reported  to  have  said — “  the  Country  is  full  of  Ab¬ 
sentees  !  ” 

There  is  no  such  case  of  “absenteeism”  as  the  United 
States  can  show  this  very  year. 

The  greatest  Landlord  in  New  York — the  richest  Land¬ 
lord  it  is  said  in  the  world,  is  an  absentee  ! 

The  owner  and  master  of  “  Homestead  ”  is  an  “  Absentee.” 
The  rents  and  profits  more  than  you  dream,  of  properties 
and  investments  in  New  York  are  spent  in  London  or 
Paris  !  Our  rich  people  are  more  and  more  leaving  the 
country,  for  a  time,  or  permanently,  denying  all  responsibili¬ 
ty  for  their  wealth,  and  spending  the  results  of  American 
toil  and  skill  in  waste  or  worse,  in  other  lands,  as  they  have 
of  course,  the  legal  right  to  do. 

But  you  say,  if  “Government”  can  do  nothing,  where 
shall  we  look?  I  answer,  you  must  look  to  yourselves. 

My  dear  friends,  do  you  not  see  the  thing  you  call 
“  Government  ”  is  simply  the  expression  of  your  own  will 
and  your  own  sense  of  decency  and  fitness  ? 

I  said  a  while  ago  that  in  this  country  there  is  no  dif¬ 
ference  happily,  between  the  employer  and  the  employed 
in  personal  character.  I  know  several  millionaires  em¬ 
ploying  a  great  many  men.  They  are  gentlemen  whom  I 
esteem.  I  know  a  number  of  gentlemen  whom  they  em¬ 
ploy.  They  are  also  gentlemen  whom  I  esteem.  I  am 
glad  to  say,  that  in  all  that  grand  old  name  implies  the 
employer  is  just  as  good  as  the  employed  ! 

Now  here,  do  you  not  see,  is  the  unique  opportunity  of 
Americans. 

The  Old  Testament  tells  us  God  gave  the  Earth  to  the 


■  .  ■  ( 


21 


Children  of  Men.  The  New  Testament  tells  us  the  Chil¬ 
dren  of  Men  are  the  Children  of  God.  And  Jesus  says — 
“All  ye  are  Brethren.”  I  suppose,  all  things  considered, 
that  was  the  real  central  fact  He  came  to  tell  us,  and  for 
which  He,  “the  Carpenter’s  Son,”  ever  stands — “Ye  all  are 
Brethren.”  * 

The  subduing  and  conquering  of  the  heritage  God  gave 
us  is  to  be  done  by  a  band  of  Brothers. 

As  far  as  we  have  gotten  it  has  been  always  done  on  that 
basis.  The  single  man,  working  by  himself  and  for  him¬ 
self,  has  never  yet  “  subdued  ”  anything.  We  have  always 
been  compelled  to  get  together  to  meet  common  dangers, 
and  assume  common  risks,  or  we  would  not  have  risen 
above  the  lowest  savagery.  Civilization  has  proceeded  on 
the  principle  that  “all  ye  are  Brethren”  or  it  would  not 
exist.  Every  Bank,  every  Railroad,  every  “Trust”  and 
“  Combine,”  every  corporation  of  any  kind  exists  on  the 
basis  that  the  battle  and  the  struggle  to  subdue  the  Earth 
and  possess  it  must  organize  on  the  basis  of  Brotherhood, 
of  mutual  shoulder  to  shoulder  help. 

In  no  country  has  this  basis  so  developed  and  revealed 
itself  as  in  our  own.  From  the  twilight  of  time  comes  the 
command  and  the  inheritance.  “The  Earth  hath  He  given 
to  the  Children  of  Men  ” — Replenish  it,  subdue  it,  possess  it. 

From  the  voice  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  from  the  Carpenter’s 
shop  in  Nazareth,  comes  the  mighty  word  which  tells  us 
how  it  is  to  be  done.  “  All  ye  are  Brethren — he  that  will 
be  the  greatest  among  you  let  him  be  your  servant.” 

The  battle  is  to  be  won  by  banded  brethren.  The  single 
isolated  man,  working  for  himself,  is  on  the  Devil’s  side. 
Rich  man,  poor  man,  millionaire  or  tramp,  he  is  on  the  side 
of  the  Devil — of  chaos  and  old  Night.  On  his  theory 
there  would  not  to-day  be  a  civilized  country  or  a  civilize 
city.  Mankind  would  be  living,  each  man  in  his  own  wig¬ 
wam,  looking  each  night  for  his  neighbour’s  scalp  ! 

In  the  blessed  ordering  of  human  life,  we  are  compelled 


22 


to  act  on  the  theory  of  our  Brotherhood.  Every  humane, 
kindly,  civilized  gathering  of  men  for  a  common  purpose 
reveals  to  us  that  we  are  all,  rich  and  poor,  in  the  same 
boat  together,  and  sink  or  swim  together.  We  cannot  do 
good  to  ourselves  without  doing  good  to  other  people. 
We  cannot  wrong  other  men  without  wronging  ourselves. 
As  far  as  we  have  won  our  way  in  subduing  the  Earth,  we 
have  done  it  on  the  principle  of  Brotherhood. 

Wolves  have  never  “  subdued  M  and  never  will,  because 
they  are  wolves  and  devour  each  other.  Men  have  sub¬ 
dued,  and  will  subdue  because  they  are  brethren  and  help 
each  other. 

It  is  slow  to  work  out  but  it  is  working.  It  is  not  many 
years  since  that  it  was  an  accepted  piece  of  “  politics  ”  that 
a  war  in  Europe,  scant  harvests  in  Russia,  or  manufactur¬ 
ing  distress  in  England  would  in  some  way  benefit  the 
United  States.  “  Make  a  market  ”  for  something  some¬ 
where.  The  old,  ignorant  and  savage  notion  that  one  men 
might  profit  by  another  man’s  misfortunes  was  actually  an 
accepted  principle  in  political  economy  !  It  is  appealed  to 
in  some  politics  to  day. 

We  have,  thank  God,  outgrown  all  that.  We  understand 
now  that  no  people  prospers  by  another  people’s  loss,  that 
failure  in  London  means  failure  in  New  York,  that  distress 
and  trouble  in  Berlin  means  distress  and  failure  in  Chicago 
— that,  whether  or  no,  we  are  all  in  the  same  boat,  broth¬ 
ers  together ! 

Why  in  the  last  month  I  have  received  a  half  dozen  cir¬ 
culars  inviting  me  to  join  in  a  half  dozen  enterprises,  nearly 
all  fraudulent,  no  doubt,  but  proceeding  you  see  on  the 
ground  that  we  must  all  get  together  in  some  company  or 
corporation,  or  co-operative  undertaking  in  order  even  to 
cheat  each  other.  Our  very  knaves  are  proclaiming,  “  All 
ye  are  brethren,”  when  they  invite  you  to  take  stock  in 
some  bogus  mine,  or  some  boom  town  in  a  swamp  or  on  a 
mountain  out  West.  They  recognize  human  brotherhood 


23 


so  far  as  to  hold  it  sure  that  if  you  are  even  to  cheat  men, 
you  must  make  a  “combine  ”  to  cheat  them  ! 

When  “  Capital  ”  as  it  is  called,  combines,  it  combines 
on  the  principle  of  Brotherhood.  It  asks  the  State — that 
is,  the  rest  of  us,  to  give  it  new  facilities,  and  special  in¬ 
ducements  and  advantages,  that  a  number  of  men  may 
go  together  and  be  Brothers  in  some  common  undertaking. 
You  could  not  organize  a  gang  of  train  robbers,  or  a  pirate 
crew  on  any  other  idea.  The  moment  that  any  corporation 
or  company  proceeds  on  the  opposite  theory  it  goes  to 
smash.  The  Bank  President  undertakes  to  run  the  Bank 
for  his  own  benefit,  not  that  of  the  stockholders,  and  blows 
up  the  Bank!  The  “Railroad  Magnate”  undertakes  to 
run  the  road,  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  Brothers — the  stock 
and  bond  owners,  but  for  his  own,  and  wrecks  the  Road  ! 
It  has  been  done  a  good  many  times,  may  be  done  a  few 
years  longer — not  many,  I  trust. 

Organized  human  society  is  against  pirates  and  sharks, 
and  by  the  law  of  survival  Pirates  are  hanged,  and  sharks 
caught  and  their  livers  fried  out  ! 

For  the  Lord  Jesus  simply  announced  an  eternal  law 
and  fact  when  he  said,  “All  ye  are  brethren.”  The  Law 
stands  and  inevitably  crushes  whatever  stands  opposed, 
man  or  system. 

I  have  read  much  foolish  writing,  and  heard  much 
foolish  talk  about  Trades’  Unions  and  Labor  Brotherhoods. 
I  take  them  to  be  tentative  and  temporary — mere  groping 
after  better  things,  after  closer  unions  and  vaster  Brother¬ 
hood.  I  am  sorry  they  do  not  get  themselves  incorporated 
by  the  State  as  the  combinations  of  capital  do.  They 
have  exactly  the  same  claim  to,  and  the  same  reason  for, 
special  privileges  and  special  position.  I  think  they  will 
come  to  this. 

But  while  both  are  compelled  to  bend  to  the  imperative 
law  of  Brotherhood,  they  both  owe  their  troubles  and 
oppositions  to  the  fact  that  at  present  they  want  a  Broth- 


* 


24 


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* 


erhood  on  the  Devil’s  principle  and  not  on  the  Lord’s  !  I 
mean  both  try  to  arrange  it  so  that  each  Brother’s  broth¬ 
erliness  is  not  appealed  to,  but  each  Brother’s  self-profit 
— I  will  make  so  much  more  for  myself  by.  the  help  of  all 
these  other  Brothers  !  ”  “I  go  into  the  Brotherhood  for 
what  I  can  get  out  of  it.” 

Dear  friends  can  you  not  see  that  this  is  the  thing,  that 
in  state  or  nation,  politics  or  business,  is  the  ruin  of 
things  ?  We  are  Brothers,  and  are  compelled  to  row 
together  in  some  shape.  The  terrible  danger  in  the  storm 
and  stress  upon  the  wild  sea  is,  that  so  many  of  us  get  the 
rowing  done  by  others,  and  do  not  care  whether  the  boat 
sinks  or  swims  so  we  get  safe  to  shore  with  a  goo.d  mort¬ 
gage  on  the  cargo  ! 

“If  one  member  suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it.” 
Baxter  Street  will  give  the  cholera  to  Fifth  Avenue,  if  Fifth 
Avenue  does  not  give  due  attention  to  Baxter  Street.  It  is 
a  hard  way  to  prove  the  Brotherhood  of  man,  but  some¬ 
times  the  only  effectual  way — a  tramp  can  give  the  yellow- 
fever  the  small-pox  or  the  cholera  to  a  millionaire  !  Perhaps 
it  is  all  he  has  to  give,  poor  fellow,  but  he  gives  it  freely  ! 

The  pressing  problem  now  is  not  how  we  shall  subdue 
and  win  more  for  human  wealth  and  use  from  the  chaos  of 
unconquered  nature.  It  is  how  we  shall  get  our  gains  into 
more  equal  distribution.  How  can  we  manage  so  that  men 
shall  not  starve  up  to  the  neck  in  heaps  of  corn,  that  wives 
and  children  shall  not  go  in  rags,  when  cloth  lies  piled  un¬ 
salable  in  a  glutted  market? 

“  Over-supply  ”  is  the  word.  And  “  over-supply  ”  means 
that  we  have  worked  so  hard  and  succeeded  so  well  that 
we  don’t  know  what  to  do  with  our  product,  and  so  a  large 
number  of  people  sit  down  in  the  midst  of  this  magnificent 
success  and  starve  ! 

Now  as  we  have  won  all  our  profits  in  a  civilized  world, 
by  working  together  as  brothers,  why  can  we  not  divide 
round  by  working  together  as  brothers?  If  the  arrange- 


25 


i 


V 


ment  was  good  for  the  victory,  why  not  for  the  results  of 
the  victory  ? 

Dear  friends,  I  am  sure  in  no  other  way  will  a  satisfactory 
settlement  ever  come. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  announced  the  law  of  all  living 
“All  ye  are  Brethren.*'  His  greatest  apostle  proclaimed 
the  law  of  action  in  the  heavens  and  in  the  earth,  “  Bear 
ye  one  another’s  heavy  loads  and  so  fulfill  the  law  of  Christ.’ 

March  together,  toil  together,  enjoy  together.  It  was  a 
grand  thing  to  gain  liberty  for  the  single  life.  Without 
fraternity  individual  liberty  is  just  the  savage  in  his  hut. 

So  I  say  I  am  thankful  for  all  combinations  and  associa¬ 
tions  among  men  for  any  good  purpose,  for  mutual  help, 
profit,  counsel  and  support.  To  get  men  into  step  together 
is  a  great  deal.  Trades’  Unions,  Brotherhoods,  Labor 
Associations  of  all  sorts  are  gropings  toward  the  abiding 
law  of  Brotherhood. 

One  day  the  Trades’  Union  will  elect  the  capitalist  an 
honorary  member  and  ask  him  to  come  and  consult  with 
the  brethren. 

One  day  the  Directory  of  the  great  corporation  will 
elect  among  its  members  the  workman  from  the  factory, 
the  engineer  from  the  locomotive  to  come  and  consult  with 
the  capitalist  on  the  wise  ordering  of  a  business  which  is 
vital  to  both. 

For  I  have  strong  faith  in  the  justice  and  good  common 
sense  of  the  American  people  and  I  have  unshakable  faith 
in  our  Brother  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  of  Nazarath  and  his 
law  of  Brotherhood.  There  will  be  wolves  on  land,  sharks 
in  the  ocean,  and  their  counterparts  in  selfish  greed  and 
hungry  snarling  grab  among  men. 

But  Jesus  Christ  and  His  law  and  those  who  try  to  fol¬ 
low  Him  will  be  too  many  for  them-in  the  long  run.  We 
will  grasp  hands  all  around  and  write  these  eternal  laws  of 
His  upon  our  banner  :  “The  Earth  hath  He  given  to  the 
Children  of  men.”  The  Children  of  men  are  “the  children 


/)' 


/ ' 

t 


\ 


26 


of  God.”  “He  that  will  be  greatest  among  you  let  him  be 
your  servant.”  “  Bear  ye  one  another’s  heavy  loads  and  so 
fulfill  the  law  of  Christ.”  With  these  upon  their  standards 
the  struggling  masses  of  men  who  just  wish  to  do  their  fair 
day’s  work  and  keep  their  wives  and  children  in  comfort 
and  content  and  peace  are  going  to  win  ! 

With  these  those  who  believe  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Carpenter’s  Son  of  Nazareth,, 
who  don’t  care  to  be  rich  but  only  to  do  good  work,  of 
which  they  are  not  ashamed,  will  make  room  for  them¬ 
selves  in  this  world  and  have  grounded  hope  for  the  other 
that  they  will  hear  the  word  “  Well  done,  good  and  faithful, 
servant.” 


The  Works  of 


Hugh  niller  Thompson,  D.  D. 

Bishop  of  Mississippi 


The  World  and  the  Logos. 

The  Bedell  Lectures  for  1885.  Square  i2mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 

“They  deal  with  the  Darwinian  theory  of  Evolution,  and  the  un¬ 
believer  in  that  doctrine  will  read  the  volume  with  a  glow  of  satisfac¬ 
tion  and  a  feeling  that  the  common-sense  side  of  the  question — from 
his  point  of  view — was  never  before  so  clearly  and  convincingly  put.” 
— Boston  Transcript. 

The  World  and  the  Kingdom. 

The  Paddock  Lectures  for  1888.  i2mo,  cloth,  75cts. 

“We  have  but  touched  upon  one  or  two  salient  points  of  the 
Bishop’s  argument.  The  full  force  and  significance  of  his  stimulating 
book  will,  we  are  confident,  interest  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
readers.” — From  the  Saturday  Review,  London . 

The  World  and  the  flan. 

Being  the  Baldwin  Lectures  for  1890,  delivered  at  Ann 
Arbor,  Mich.  i2mo,  cloth,  $1.25. 

“And  what  a  rich  and  rare  style  he  has  of  putting  his  thoughts  ! 
Every  line  of  shining  clearness,  familiar  in  expression,  full  of  nerve, 
bears  the  mark  of  ripest  contemplation,  is  stamped  with  the  fresh, 
singular  individuality  of  the  man.” — New  York  Observer. 

“  Copy.” 

Essays  from  an  Editor’s  Drawer  on  Religion,  Literature, 
and  Life.  i2mo,  cloth,  $1.50. 

“A  good  many  questions  of  the  present  hour  are  vigorously,  intelli¬ 
gently,  helpfully  touched.  ,  .  ,  There  is  many  a  corrective  for  local 
disorders  in  these  drops  of  ecclesiastical  wisdom.” — The  Literary  World, 


Thomas  Whittaker,  2  and  3  Bible  House,  New  York. 

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